The Aftermath

I guess every society on earth has a time of the year where they do nothing but drink, sing, eat, and sing some more for day and after day for a week (or until they just can't do it anymore and pass out in the middle of the street). For ecuadorians...it is definitely carnaval. Now, I'm not sure if my judgement is clouded because carnaval is craziest in the exact province in which I live, but all I can say is...wow. Starting from wednesday before valentines day, there was a guaranteed parade/dance/drinkfest every day/night in either San Lorenzo or Guaranda or some other city/village until the tuesday after valentines day. And let's just say I partaked in these festivities, not unwillingly because you know...it helps with the "integration process". Highlights from this weekend that was.

1. I was chosen to be a "caballero" (gentleman) for the San Lorenzo election of the queen of carnaval. The queen of carnaval is akin to a miss usa or a beauty pageant. It's a pretty big deal. The reason why I was chosen (not just because of my stunning good looks haha) was because each organization has to have a representative there and my counterpart's organization had one. It was kind of cool because I got to wear a suit and tie and i didn't think that i would need it after the swearing in ceremony. Suffice to say, our representative (kristina) came in 4th place. Not sure if it was because I did a bad job or if she was picked out 2 days before the election took place and was way in over her head, eh.

2. Any time that you can get an elvis pressly impersonation from a drunk ecuadorian who can't speak a word of english so ends up singing "jailhouse rock" but with more a yelling incoherent jumble of noise, well, you have to take that and I run with it. By the way, as far as ecuadorians are concerned, i know elvis pressly and michael jackson personally, especially michael jackson because i live in southern california.

3. Being sprayed with a shaving cream like substance, being dowsed with water, having flour thrown on you at any particular moment is actually a lot more fun than it sounds or reads. And if you don't like it, then you're not enjoying carnaval. Que bonito es carnaval!

4. My parents happend to visit me and San Lorenzo during the craziest two days of the year, and they were not immune to the carnaval treatment. They were here on monday when San Lorenzo does their true carnaval celebration with a parade in the morning and then a drunken dancefest from about 12pm to 8pm (or whenever the DJ stops and everyone is passed out drunk). And no, they weren't part of that dancefest, though that would of been some great photos for sure. It's always an interesting time when your parents give water and flour poured on them...and you're waiting for the outburst of anger...but then it doesn't happen. I warned them.

5. Que bonito es carnaval, this line is going to be stuck in his head for the rest of my life as i heard about 32897409374 renditions of the song over the past month. Que bonito es carnaval is the stock line, then for the next few stanzas, you can put in whatever frase you want to. Therefore, there can be as many ways to sing the song as you want, and I am pretty sure I heard every last one humanely possible.


I would say imagine a mardi gras or news years celebration and mutiply that over a week and now you get the generally idea of carnaval in Guaranda. Now that carnaval is over, I guess I have to go back to reality and work again.

(sigh.)

please help!

hey everyone,

my project for the shredder has been approved by Peace Corps and you can now look for it on the peace corps website. how you might ask? easy!

1. either google peace corps partenerships or go to peacecorps.gov and look for partnerships.

2. click on ¨donate to volunteer projects¨

3. then go to ¨search by country of service¨ and pick ecuador (not saying you can´t pick another country because i´m sure all the lovely other PCVs out there would love your support too)

4. then click on community compost project or my name Raser,J and read about my project some more if you want.

5. help a brother out!



I know things are tough and not everyone has a lot of expendable income right now and there are defenitely more troubling things out in the world (Haiti) but if you know somebody, anybody, that would be interested in my project, guide them to the peace corps partnerships page on the peace corps website and search for my project.

Thanks!